The Middle East Exception

Friday, June 22, 2007

Proud of my army, proud of my new powerful heroes !

We have waited so long for a video like this one..What other populations take for granted, we just received it now with this clip.

How do you recognize heroes ?Well, a sure way to recognize heroes is this: a very poor army, underarmed, undermined,crushed by 30 years of syrian hegemony, crushes an islamist movement, by the sole BRAVOURY ofits men.By definition, those men are heroes.Long live heroes.Long live Lebanon.

A puzzling run for president in Lebanon: Christian Michel Aoun is alienating his traditional backers and violating Lebanon's unwritten rules

I Bring you an article I stumbled upon in the LA TIMES, written by Tony Badran.I thought it reflected a very truthful image about the situation nowadays in Lebanon.Have a nice read.-----

IF YOU'RE LUCKY enough not to be obsessed with Middle East politics, you may be surprised to learn that the keynote speaker at Hezbollah's massive Beirut demonstration last week was not a Shiite Muslim but a Maronite Christian. Michel Aoun, the army general who was driven into exile by Syria in 1990 but has been oddly friendly with Syria and its local allies since his return to Lebanon last year, addressed an overwhelmingly Shiite crowd and called for the resignation of Sunni Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

Aoun's primary objective is to become president. To achieve this goal, he concluded a political alliance with Hezbollah in February, hoping to build a strong enough coalition to win the presidency (a position that by long custom goes to a Christian leader).

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With one year remaining in Syrian-installed President Emile Lahoud's term, time is running out for Aoun. Even with Hezbollah's support, he lacks the seats to be elected by parliament. Toppling the current government, however, might be a first step toward a full shift in the country's internal political balance.

Aoun's personal ambitions are quixotic at best. But his drive to be president has been a great gift to Hezbollah, allowing the extremist party to disguise its current attempt at a sectarian coup against one of the Arab world's few democracies as a broad national movement. Lebanon is made up of large minorities of Shiites, Sunnis, Druze and Christians of various sects, along with dozens of smaller groups. To create the illusion of a national consensus, you need useful idiots from outside your own sect. This is where the general comes in.

Aoun has chosen the Shiite option. His soft policy toward Syria (including ambiguous statements about an international tribunal to try the assassins of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri) is aimed at securing Syrian acceptance of his presidential bid. Is it likely that the same regime the general fought in a bloody 1990 war will be interested in making him president of Lebanon? Aoun's newfound ally, Suleiman Franjieh, a longtime Syrian loyalist and a fellow Maronite, seems to think so. Franjieh may envision a new alliance among Maronites, Shiites and the ruling Alawites in Syria.

But Aoun's calculations fail to take in some dangerous regional realities. Syria is more than pleased to see Aoun attacking the anti-Syrian government. So is Iran, whose supreme guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, recently predicted the defeat of U.S. and allied interests in Lebanon. Wittingly or not, Aoun is serving these foreign masters for free.

There's a cardinal rule in Lebanese politics that the president must be acceptable both to his own community and to the others. Aoun is neither. His positions have been antithetical to the Maronite patriarchate, the seat of moderation in the community and a strong opponent of using street rallies to unseat the government. Aoun's alliance with Hezbollah and Syria's puppets has infuriated the anti-Syrian Christian community, which aimed much of its anger at him after the assassination of Maronite Cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel last month. Now, by agreeing to be the vanguard of a Shiite-led coup attempt against a Sunni prime minister, he has broken an unwritten rule against getting his community involved in a Sunni-Shiite conflict, potentially putting the already polarized Maronite community at risk.

Meanwhile, there is strong opposition to his candidacy from the main Sunni and Druze leaderships. Their lack of trust in him is exacerbated by his vague position on the international tribunal in the Hariri assassination — unquestionably the priority of these leaderships, as well as of France and the U.S.

It's not even clear that the Shiite parties Amal and Hezbollah would back him for president. Although they have been happy to use Aoun as a club to beat the majority coalition, the Shiites have never made any public endorsement of him. That may be because Aoun has shown the Shiites too that he can't be trusted. During recent national dialogue sessions among the country's leaders, Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement reportedly tried to cut a deal that fell short of what his Hezbollah allies were seeking, embarrassing Hezbollah and prompting it to scuttle the deal.

In the end, the fact that the various communities are opposed to him will make Aoun's gambit a long shot. But his tone-deaf presidential bid should be instructive to anybody who believes that the current street theater in Beirut reflects the will of the Lebanese majority.

For all the chaos that plagues Lebanon, the country's sectarian balance imposes a complex and durable structure of protocols, restrictions and unwritten rules on the various communities. When these boundaries are transgressed, the result is often conflict. The region has a similar set of unwritten rules, and Aoun's support for a possible (Syrian- and Iranian-backed) Shiite coup against the Sunni prime minister has sent the Sunni Arab powerhouses strongly backing Siniora and warning against Iranian interference.

As such, Aoun is but the latest in a line of challengers of Lebanon's unwritten codes. He will fail like all the others; the question is how much damage he causes in the meantime.

-----Original link to the article: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-badran6dec06,0,8412.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

A man, in his car, in a moderatly crowded christian neighborhood, in broad daylight, gets bumped in the back by another car, of which 3 gunmen come out, and shower the man's car with bullets, killing him and his bodyguard..

Did I forget anything ? ah yes... this man, is a Cabinet Minister !!!

What am I missing ?? how could the police say they have little to report ?Is it for the secrecy of the investigation ?? well I thought about that, but no, it couldn't be the right answer. Just look at all the previous assassination attempts where the police gave the same statements.. no suspects have been apprehended yet !

But now it is even stranger, because it happened in a different manner. No boobytrapped car, no remote controlled detonations. No. The murderers were there in their flesh and blood.yet...."little to report"...

The funniest thing, though, are the responses of the pro-syrian camp.Basically, they accused march 14 (some specified Geagea) of killing Gemayel, to prevent the pro-syrians from staging their demonstrations..

Let's remember together that Franjieh had in the past accused Saad Hariri of murdering his own father, Rafic Hariri, to gain power..

Syrian FM said that they should investigate with Geagea, because he predicted the murder days before.

Strange world, where the primary suspects accuse the victims... If you needed another proof of guilt, there you go...

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Final confrontation ? Oh solution, FEDERALISM is thy NAME !!

Things have been happening very fast these past few days.

National dialogue talks resumed, and then (surprise...) failed again, like in the good old pre-July-war times.However, one thing was different, as subsequently to the failure, all the 5 shiite ministers submitted their resignation from the Lebanese government.

The next day, a christian minister, a protégé of the pro-syrian Lebanese president, walked in the footsteps of his shiite collegues.

This however did not prevent the cabinet from convening and approving the U.N. draft text setting up an international tribunal to try former prime minister Hariri's suspected assassins.

Lahoud (the president) was quick to announce the illegitimacy of the cabinet without its resigning ministers, followed by Speaker Berri, both pro-syrians.

A few days afterwards, Hassan Nasrallah announced in a speech that "they" offered tens of thousands of "martyrs" to Lebanon, and hence Lebanon is theirs. (he probably said it better than me, and more convincingly, I'm sure, but the essence is there...)

Today, Hizbullah (HA) threatened with public obedience.

Aoun is, like usual, still barki.. uh... complaining like a crybaby all the time, but overshadowed by his so-called "ally", Hassan Nasrallah.

Good. So now THE solution.

First, I think I have said it enough. How does HA dare critisize the government, while it is the origin of all the government's troubles ?

But, something new, a new term is born, for you my dear readers (ok, drop the "dear"):HA and Aoun are becoming masters at the art of Selective Unconstitutionalism !

For HA, it is perfectly unconstitutional for a cabinet to meet without its shiite ministers, and hence its decisions are void.

BUT, and there is where it becomes fun, it is perfectly constitutional to WAGE A WAR without informing your government, attack a neighboring sovereign nation (Yes "dear" readers, Israel exists, as a sovereign nation, for those who are still trying to ignore the "zionist entity").It is perfectly constitutional to wage violent demonstrations, to destroy whole neighborhoods in the Nation's capital, just because some journalist drew Mohamed on a piece of paper in... Danemark.. or just because a Lebanese satirical show exposed Nasrallah's real intentions..

The list goes on, but I guess you get the idea.

Moreover, and this is one of my favorite parts, HA and Aoun are calling for a national unity government, in the name of democracy.wow.. what a sentence.... let's take a closer look at it, shall we..

What do HA and Aoun mean by national unity government ? easy, one third plus one seats go to them. This would give them veto power on important governmental decisions... Otherwise known as political death to the country.But they ask for it in the name of "democracy"..

Strange, call me stupid, but I used to think that democracy consisted of a party in power, and a party in the opposition..When did the democracy become "all parties in power, let's get ready to rumble !".....??????Can anyone answer that question ?

Let alone, Aoun, accusing the government of bad infrastructure... for you see, it seems that some roads were filled with water when the first rains came.... do I need to say that this problem exists since ages ?? Is Aoun really so desperate as to attack the government on such stupid and irrelevant topics ?

I guess that Aoun forgot that he was offered ministry seats in the goverment, that he refused, because he wanted specified ministries (defense and exterior, if I'm not wrong)...So Aoun, a fan of "give me the best, orelse I'll say you are bad" ?

Here comes the part where I'll lose the few of you who are still agreeing with me up until this point.HA doesn't want to negociate anymore (FM Fneish just said so today). Aoun seems pretty much incapable of admitting his error.Where do we go from here ?

Easy: Federalism !

Okay, I'll give you 2 minutes to get over the shock and get back in your chair.Ready ?Think about it, why not ??

Let's leave the old stupid clichés for a minute. "Lebanon is the example of living together", "Lebanon has 18 sects that live together in harmony", "Lebanon is the place where everybody can live with everybody"....Wrong ! wake up ! it's a bad bad dream !!

We CANNOT live together, not in the actual shape of the country !Let federalism solve it ! we will all remain Lebanese, but we will also live in different federations, like it's the case in Switzerland for instance. Weren't we the switzerland of the east ?... ;)

Give me just ONE good argument againt the federal system.We would all still sing the "kuluna lil watan", no problem there.HA is clearly unwilling to compromise on anything unless it is in power.Well, let it be in power in its region. We'll see how this goes.Let us not be ashamed to say, that what made Lebanon the most democratic and advanced country in the region is not HA.

I tell you, let's forget our taboos and our illusions. Let's sit and study seriously this option.If it turns out to be a bad one, so be it, but at least let's study the possibility !

UPDATE 1: Christian cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel just got assassinated, november 21st. It seems like a final confrontation is inevitable. Will the Lebanese once again shy away from the truth ?

Friday, October 20, 2006

The KNIGHTS TEMPLAR invade LEBANON

okay folks, I have it !The solution I mean, I have it !The solution for Lebanon.

Okay see you later, have to get my beauty sleep now... what ?.. what ?.. oh.... oh you mean you want to know what the solution is. okay, here it is:

To expose it to you, I need to talk to you about a passion of mine, that has been accompanying me for years now (the most perspicacious of you may have noticed this through some of my quotes). All this time, it was right under my nose. It is something that goes back hundreds of years ago.I know that the solution for Lebanon lies within the rule of the Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici.Otherwise known as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, they are most popularly known as the Knights Templar (KT).

Now, of course the KT was one of the most famous of the Christian military orders.And of course I am not calling for a crusade or anything of the kind. I'll leave that to George W Bush.No, what I am saying is that we can be inspired by the rule that these knights used to live by, to bring our country out of the chaos.

Let's take a look at this rule. it is actually devided into many sections, so let's take the very first section, called the primitive rule, and the very first article:(excuse my bad translation from french.. )

Orig: "We speak first of all with all those who scorn their own will secretly and who wish to serve with courage the knighthood of the sovereign king and with those who want to achieve and who achieve, with assiduity, the very noble virtue of obedience. "Modif: Replace the "sovereign king" by the "lebanese people", apply the resulting rule to our politicians.Result: Courage disqualifies most of March 14, scorning one's own will and vertue of obedience disqualifies Aoun and Hizbullah..

Another one, a bit further goes:Orig: "Because it is written: In multiloquio not effugies peccatum, which means that too much to speak leads to the sin. And in another place: Mors et vita in manibus lingue, which means: 'death and life are within the capacity of the tongue'.To whomever speaks, we forbid, in all manner, the empty words and the unpleasant bursts of laughter. And if nothing is to be said [..], when you will come in your bed, we order you to say the prayer patenôtre with humility and devotion."Modif: Hardly anything, just replace the patenôtre with the lebanese national hymn. And absolutely no other chant or hymn.Results: Aoun is the big looser here, when it comes to words and silence. followed by the whole March 14 and HA, in that order.When it comes to saying the Lebanese national hymn, HA dethrones Aoun, who follows closely, and is followed by most of March 14.

Yet another article:Orig: "The Master can give to whom he wants, the horse of another brother as well as his armours and anything else he wills. The brother to whom this thing will be given, or from whom it will have been removed, must not owe grudge, anger, because he will be aware that if he becomes angry, it would be against God."

Modif: Merely replace the Master and God by the Lebanese people, and the brother by the politicians. Taking and giving things are the elections.

Result: Aoun and HA are the big loosers, as they fail yet to respect the will of the Lebanese, expressed in the elections. (no matter that the electoral law doesn't satisfy everybody in the univers)

On errors, it stipulates:Orig: "If a brother makes a fault, while riding or while speaking or in all other manner, he must, of his own will, show the fault to the Master and he must do it with pure courage of satisfaction. If it is not usual for this brother to make faults, he will have a light penitence of it, but if the fault is too serious, he must be withdrawn from the company of the brothers, must not eat, nor drink at any table, but alone by himself, and must be subjected to the forgiveness and the judgement of the Master and the brothers so that he can be pure at judgement day."

Modif: A brother is any politician, the Master represents the Lebanese people.

Results: ..... not a single actual man in power in Lebanon remains in his seat.....

I'm stopping here, as so far not a single Lebanese politician survived.. sad really.I guess Lebanon is still waiting for its Knight.

Who can be Lebanon's Templar ?and most importantly, who can answer this question and how ?...

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

When Muslims told the Pope to play Aoun with March 14's Hizbullah..

It has been a while since my last post. Partly because I was busy (yes, I do have another job than this blog), but primarily because it seems that the events are just repetitions of past events.

Let me elaborate on that.so what has happened since my last post:

- Muslims, outraged by the pope's comments he made in Germany, took it to the streets in many countries, with many demonstrations including violence.Oh, you mean the same thing that happened with the prophet's caricatures ? or the riots of the shiites (HA shiites) in Lebanon after the lebanese satirical show "Basmat watan" ?

- So what else... Ah yes, Hizbullah (HA) celebrated their "devine victory" over the "zionist entity".Again, they were chanting their victory since before the war ended.

- Aoun attacked the government, said he will wear Sanioura until he is gone. he also said that Lebanon will not be built in embassies..... for the zillionth time.....

- March 14 coalition responded to Nasrallah's speech during his "devine victory" rally.You have to give it to them, the march 14 and HA, they are really, truly, international ping-pong champions..HA: "blabla"M14: "blabla....bla"HA: "oh yeah ?? blablabaaaabla"M14: "bu !"... ok, you got the idea....

Since I am so far along in my post, why not give my point of view to those interested ?

- About the pope's comments, and the reactions that followed:Am I really the only one, or did the muslims who got upset TOTALLY miss the point ??I read many (many) comments about that on the net and the blogosphere.The most amazing fact is that no more than 10% (tops) read the WHOLE pope's speech..[proud mode ON] I did ! [proud mode OFF]

I also had also the opportunity to discuss it with some contacts from the blogosphere (in private), mainly with "Nobody" from the happyarabnews blog.

The muslims were offended by a quote of a Byzantine emperor the pope made.And to show their non-violent philosophy, the islamic extremists thought wise to burn some flags, break some windows and some stores, and ... "courageously" murder a 70-year-old nun in Somalia. Yep, seventy-year-old.The nun used to work in a children's hospital. I said "courageous" because she was shot 3 times in the back.Why ? silly question, it's obvious.. because the pope quoted an emperor about islam.

Now for those of you who bothered to read the pope's lecture in its entirety, they would have probably noticed that the quote should have been the least of the muslims' worries.........Got your attention didn't I ?So now let me prove it to you. Here's a direct quote from the pope's lecture:

"[..]The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature. The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality. Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Islamist R. Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazm went so far as to state that God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God's will, we would even have to practise idolatry."

I encourage you to read all the lecture. I cannot afford to quote more here, orelse the size of my post would explode.The thing is, that the pope talked about the very nature and foundation of god in islam, and compared it to god's image in christianity.To say it in 2 words, in christianity, god is not a stranger to reason and logic, he always keeps his promise, and people are made on his image.In Islam, god is not bound to any logic nor word, he is above that, and the people do not ressemble him in any way. (very short description, please read the whole lecture for more and clearer details).

If I were muslim, I would worry more about that than the insignificant quote..Amazing how noone commented on that fact....Why didn't we see muslim delegations, muslim thinkers, going on public saying they want to discuss this with the pope ? I am sure he would have gladly accepted.Instead, they left the islamic extremists take it violently to the streets to show they are not violent...

By the way, Theodore KHOURY, whose works were the basis of the pope's lecture, for those who are still, is LEBANESE. check him out here.

- About HA's "devine victory":First, let me apologize to Mister Hassan, on behalf of a 1000 lebanese.They apologize for not being able to attend your rally, because they are 10 feet under the ground.But it's cool, they say they are not angry or anything, chill, because they died for the just cause, they died so that the "true promise" could come true..Oh wait... rewind..... play... the true promise ? isn't that about retrieving prisoners, and the land still occupied ?hmm.... he prisoners are very much still in the israeli prisons (not to mention Syrian prisons), shebaa farms are still occupied...What divine victory is that ? aaah yes, I almost forgot... HA was driven away from the south, and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) are now at the borders...

Uh... what victory is that again ??

To all the cheerful people cheering about the HA's victory, take 30 seconds and think about the following.. no really, t a k e 30 seconds, and think about the following:Imagine yourselves 15/20 years from now, reading a history book. What would the book say about the last war in Lebanon ?In my opinion, it would read something along these lines:"In July 2006 [..]etc etc.. the outcome of the war was the following: Destruction of many southern Lebanese villages, more than a thousand civilian victims (israeli and lebanese). HA failed to achieve its aim, as in bringing back the prisoners and liberating the Shebaa farms.Moreover, HA received a great blow, in that it was driven away from the border with Israel, a priviledge which was so far given solely to the party, and, the major blow that HA sustained was probably the public outburst against it. HA lost a great deal of popularity in this war, a popularity the party had amassed in 2000.The lebanese economy suffered for many years after the war, and the impact is still sensible nowadays. That resulted in many problems, mainly the social security system. Many lebanese are known to have been refused access to hospitals because hospitals were refusing patients who were on the social security role.

Israel, however, failed also at its main goal, which was to disarm HA, but gained the deployment of the LAF at its northern borders, a quest it was seeking since 2000. The reconstruction of the few northern cities hit by HA rockets posed no problem whatsoever to the strong Israeli economy".

Please stop chanting about the "devine victory", it is INSULTING to the lebanese people and to the lebanese victims fallen during the war.

Are you planing on doing something or are you just planing to go on playing ping pong with HA ?No excuses, march 14 is in power right now, they have to act..

Okay, I guess that'll have to do it for now.I have to admit that the lebanese politics is starting to annoy me.. Nothing new, nothing interesting...I'm thinking about converting this blog into a more interesting topic (that will be easy to find), like "carpets on planet Mars". What do you think ? Could be more interesting, no ?

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Hassan Nasrallah (HN) has said recently (yesterday) that Hizbullah (HA) is still present in the south of Lebanon, even on the border (with Israel).Moreover, he said he does not regret the capture of the 2 Israeli soldiers and thanks "God" for helping them do it.Nasrallah also launched his yet fiercest attack on the government (which his party is part of), and on PM Saniora himself, calling him an amercian tool, and accusing the march 14 coalition of helping Israel during the war.He also accused the government of not being able neither to stop the war nor to protect Lebanon.He carried on to attack the government's decision to receive the "killer" Blair, the britsh PM, saying the government had shown little regard for his group and those who died during the war by agreeing to meet with Blair.

Of course, after once again asserting that HA won the war (and not Lebanon), he called for the formation of a new national unity government to include Michel Aoun.

What can one answer to that ?... well, let's give it a shot, shall we !

Can HN really be serious about accusing the government of not being able to stop the war ?I find this really bold, to say the least.How can he wonder about the way to stop the war, while he unilaterally started it ??Did he ask the government's permission to start the war, in the first place ?What gives him the right now to blame the goverment on a war HE started, and may I add, illegally ?

Again, how can the government protect Lebanon, while HA fighters were hiding among civilians ? or while they were using the UN posts as shields, as many UNIFIL reports very clearly show ? The most famous report in that sense is maybe the one written by the canadian soldier, who died a few days later in an israeli airstrike.

HN didn't get into details on how the march 14 coalition was helping Israel during the war. So one cannot answer this point.But I would say the ones who helped Israel do all this destruction to the country would be the party which crossed the internationally recognized borders and kidnapped 2 soldiers, giving Israel the perfect reason. Afterwards, I hardly think Israel was counting on march 14 support to carry on with the war.

And now for the best part, where HN accuses the government of showing little regard for his group and those who died during the war by agreeing to meet with Blair.oh ?..were HA fighters really concerned about the lives of the civilians they were hiding among ? shiites, sunnis, druze and christians.Talking about respect, I cannot really recall HA showing any, for the many lebanese fallen victim to the syrian regime, nor to the assassination of Hariri and the 20 others who died with him in that attempt.

Were HA showing respect to the lebanese people when they staged a huge tribute to the syrian occupation of Lebanon, before the syrian troops left it ?Were HA showing respect to their country, when they were holding big posters of the syrian president Bashar Al-Assad, during that same tribute, and chanting "our soul, our blood, are yours, Bashar !" ?So how was that considerate to all the lebanese killed by the hands of the syrian occupation ?how was it respectful to all the lebanese prisoners in the syrian jails, and whom Syria insist on denying their very existence ?Shall we ask the mothers who are holding pictures of their imprisoned sons and daughters in syrian jails, how they felt when they saw HA paying warm tribute to Syria ?

Do we see people chanting "Our soul, our blood are yours, Blair, Bush, Chirac !" ?

As for Michel Aoun.. I think I wrote enough articles about this man. you can check out my previous posts. The only thing he shares with HN is his megalomania, and the fact that HN is using him.

All this in the name of national unity, for you see, this theme sells well in a country like Lebanon.

I think that HN just forgot that he is just a party leader. He obviously likes playing the role of national leader, which he is not.